Description: Panel discussion of alternative approaches to the design of reserve standards, to include those topics discussed in several recent papers and committee reports.

Description: This paper develops a formal framework to model the behavior of individual and small group health insurance policies in a competitive market. In this framework, anti-selective lapse is not assumed, but arises as a result of rational consumers seeking the best value in a competitive market where the premium rates are restricted by law. The authors obtain a model that addresses a number of fundamental questions which have not been fully answered previously, including the effect of price-induced anti-selective lapse on the mix of insureds in a block and the optimal renewal price to maximize the aggregate profit of a block.

Description: A simple short-term disability model is developed, where the loss process is comprised of two processes: new claims process and continuing claims process. This results in a surplus function with stationary dependent increments. Three dimensional transitional probabilities are needed to model the transitions of this non-Markovian process. An approximating model with stationary independent increments is found. The approximating model leads to bounds for the finite probability of ruin. Numerical comparisons are made.

Description: The birthday rule is used to determine whether the father's or the mother's insurer is liable for a child's medical bills, where the liability rests with the insurer of the parent whose birthday falls in the first half of the year. It is assumed that the odds are even that the liable insurer will be the mother's, vs. the father's. This paper demonstrates how the key determinant of whether this assumption is valid is the distribution of the difference in spouses' ages.

Description: A mathematical framework for benefits and choices must be created, in order to model flexible benefit selection. This paper creates such a framework by defining benefit plans as reimbursement functions. These are then used with a defined choice function to calculate the cost deviation due to selection. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1992, VOL. 1.

Description: This is an Excel workbook that can be used as a tool for health insurance companies to model their potential risk exposure from an influenza pandemic. It is based on a model developed for a Society of Actuaries study examining the potential implications of a pandemic on the U.S. health insurance industry. The spreadsheet is saved with many of the same assumptions used in this research and reproduces the results of the exhibits contained in the June 2010 report, 'Potential Impact of Pandemic Influenza on the U.S. Health Insurance Industry.'

Description: A recent study sheds light on the measurement and implications of the relationship between increased morbidity and declining disability. The results were not consistent across all populations. This study of the compression of morbidity is part of a wider project called the M-project, led by the four authors, which aims to explore the demographic factors leading to an increase in the adult longevity, investigate the phenomenon called the compression of mortality and develop a new methodological approach to longevity analysis with focus on the modal age at death M.